19 February 2004 Edition

Sinn Féin Assembly group leader, Newry/Armagh MLA Conor Murphy, has confirmed that Sinn Féin is proposing the establishment of three new departments in the Six-County Executive as part of the Review of the Agreement. Two new departments, for Equality and Policing and Justice, respectively, are both consistent with the Good Friday Agreement. The third, a Department for Children and Young People, is a long standing Sinn Féin objective and was raised as far back as the negotiations leading up to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. Free article

Sinn Féin EU candidate for the Northwest, Pearse Doherty, delivering the 12th annual Joe MacManus/Kevin Coen Lecture at the weekend, slammed the decision of British Secretary of State Paul Murphy to once again refuse to provide answers in relation to the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings. He said it was time that the Dublin Government stood up to the securocrats in the British system and demanded the truth. Free article

Sinn Féin spokesperson on the Environment, Heritage and Local Government Arthur Morgan TD has questioned Minister Martin Cullen on the inappropriate practice employed by his Department of using models in promotions for public information campaigns.
Morgan said he raised this issue with the Minister because on a number of occasions he has used female models in promotions for public information campaigns. Free article

Sinn Féin in Kerry has chosen two candidates to run for the Tralee area of Kerry County Council and three candidates for Tralee Town Council in next June's local elections.
Sitting Councillor Toiréasa Ní Fhearaíosa (23), who took over from her father, Martin Ferris last September, will be joined in the County Council campaign by Tralee woman Maisie Houlihan (53), from the Strand Road area of the town. Free article

Sinn Féin candidate in the forthcoming European elections, Bairbre de Brún, was the guest speaker at last Sunday's republican commemoration in honour of assassinated Sinn Féin Councillor John Davey at St Mary's Churchyard, Lavey.
Councillor Davey (61) was shot by the UVF on 14 February 1989 as he drove his car into the driveway of his home at Gulladuff. Free article

BY PAUL CONFREY - Sinn Féin launched its waste management charter earlier this week, at a press conference where the focus was on the campaign against incineration and for a proper waste management strategy.
The charter reiterates the party's support for the abolition of local authority refuse charges that penalise the householder, who produces less than 10% of all solid waste. Free article

"It's a strange world," said Gerry Adams to a packed audience in Melbourne. "Eight years ago, your Prime Minister refused me permission to visit Australia on the very same basis that tens of thousands were sent here in the first place."
The Sinn Féin President was addressing almost 600 people at a literary lunch sponsored by The Age newspaper in Melbourne. Free article

Sinn Féin Assembly Group leader Conor Murphy has said that a report by the Police Ombudsman finding no evidence of wrongdoing regarding the PSNI political raid on the Sinn Féin Offices in Stormont was deeply flawed.
"It simply repeats information given to it by the PSNI and passes no judgement on its reliability," said Murphy. Free article

The Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was challenged in the Dáil this week on his support for the war in Iraq by allowing Shannon to be used as a military air base and his acceptance of discredited US and British Government claims about weapons of mass destruction. Sinn Féin Dáil leader Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said both governments had now been forced to establish inquiries "into the so-called intelligence they peddled" to justify the war. Free article

Arsonists torch nationalist home
A West Belfast man whose Springfield Road home was the target of an arson attack by loyalists on Saturday night last said the attack was a deliberate attempt to kill him and his four-year-old son.
The man, who wishes to remain anonymous, was due to move into his new home on Saturday but those plans have been put on hold after it was extensively damaged in the arson attack. Free article

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